Note - I recommend doing at least 4 bulbs in one sitting. That way you have extra H9's you can swap in immediately when one burns out. I'm going on 6 years on my originals seen in this video with no issues, and no burnouts yet!
@@han615 Your question does not make much sense. You have not said what bulb you have in your fog. It is simple. You can modify any h9 to fit where you use h11.
I purchased new projector headlights for my ram truck. The headlight comes with H9 low beam bulbs for the projector instead of the H11. The brightness is very good and to be fair it's not too much dimmer than the d2s hid bulbs I used in a retrofitted morimoto hid projector in my previous projector headlights, and of course they are not nearly as white, but very yellow in comparison, but I don't mind that at all. Having known this I would have stayed away from hid retrofitting. I did this H9 mod on my mother's Honda Insight a few years ago and it made a good difference. She had a projector headlight but was really dim.
...adding the 65w bulb in where a 55w bulb normally sits will add roughly ~1.5A more current draw in that location. I think using the electrical formula, 12-14.4V, I saw less than 6A draw only on paper, not with a meter). The 55w bulbs pulls 4.xA. As long as the fuse can support the extra demand, you should be okay. But also need to take heat into consideration as well.
A sharp knife or a cutter is enough to cut away the plastic tab. The red rubber gasket can be removed before grinding the metal tab, and the metal tab can be trimmed using scissors for metal sheet, with less effort. Anyway thank you for the detailed infos
Used a pair of sidecutters. 2 hard squeezes on each side of the metal tab then give it a little twist and it snaps off. A sharp retractable blade will shave off the plastic inside the socket easily. All together it took barely a minute to modify a bulb. Don't know why you need a dremel?
It should be noted that only the top tab needs to be cut and not all three tabs. The two bottom left and right tab is normally the same alignment as the H9.
Just did mine first time - took the advice to use a heated piece of metal to slice the tab. I ended up just using a flathead screwdriver heated on the gas burner of my range. Took minutes and no fuss. This dremel method is way too complicated.
I tried that and it wasn't able to give a precise enough cut. I'm still on the same modded bulbs now like 7 years later and haven't even had one burn out, no issues.
I'm stuck on the same question. But on Amazon or Ebay it keeps bringing up h11 bulbs whenever I type in h9... so can I use a h11 for the h9? Please let me know if you found the answer! Thanks!
Nice instructional video, however, it looks like you inadvertantly cut through the plastic where the connector plugs in. Also, it looks like you damaged the red gasket which could certainly lead to a bad seal and moisture in the headlights.
This is true. I actually trashed that bulb and did another one more carefully. The only reason this happened was because the camera was in the way for making this video so my working angle was not ideal.
Yah, I get that, filming while trying to perform a task it a bitch. I am considering doing this mod and thought maybe I would lightly clamp the bulb in a vise while I work on it. Thanks for the vid.
Good video. But you are trying to improve a light output from 40% brightness to 50% brightness. Tests done by CBC's Marketplace program have shown that most new cars with projector headlights are inadequate to light the road safely. These projectors should have been fitted with HID's since more than 50% of a bulb's output is lost when it passes thru the projector lens. So the solution is to install aftermarket HID's that have about 3 times the intensity of a halogen in order to get effective lighting of the road. I have used aftermarket HID's for years (on Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Ford cars) and never had anyone blink me for flashing in their eyes. But I can see things I sometimes missed with the halogens - such as pedestrians crossing, potholes, open manholes, construction debris etc.
I don't really like aftermarket HID's. Mounting the boxes they require in the engine compartment can be a pain and if not done very securely, they can fall and become a real danger.
@@phototristan I use 3m double sided tape for sticking on moldings on cars. Bought from home depot and it sticks very hard. Works for me. And night driving is a joy instead of a squinting guessing exercise because the headlights are too dim
Meh if only I could...... I can't even run LEDS safely because the Pontiac g6 headlight is a sealed unit the low and high beams both have big plastic covers with gaskets that you have to tighten down and definitely no room for any ballasts lol. I'm sure LEDS would burn out super fast with no fresh air coming in they do not like heat at all no LED bulb does....
Great video and tips of what tools to use. Why though, (this isnt knocking you dude), why of all these conversion videos does no one provide a comparison of the light output for us to see. And, yeah okay h11 to h9, which brand and model h9 are you modding and what is the original brand model you are comparing to? Sylvania basic? Sylvania silverstar? Silverstar ultra? ZXE? ZXE Gold? Philips, Amazon no name, ebay Chinese? What is ACTUALLY being compared?? Like said, not knocking you dude just had to throw it out there that some vital bits are missing
Because there is a specific measuring tool that is very expensive that you need to use to get actual data. Photos and video do a shit job of actually seeing the difference, simply because they can't take in enough data and process it correctly like our brains can. Even then, our interpretation is clouded and inaccurate, especially using claims like "I never get flashed" and "way brighter" or other ambiguous "evidence". However, so many people do this because they notice a drastic enough difference, relative to the cost and installation, to make it worth swapping from H11 to H9.
My issue was the projector headlights seem designed for HID but come standard with H11 halogen and perform poorly in projector headlights. H9(65w) is a marked improvement of the standard H11 as mentioned here. Bulb life can be an issue so I purchased Philips H9 standard bulbs that have the best life expectancy, also most of these mods are UNNECESSARY with the Philips other than a quick cut of a utility knife to trim the interior plastic tab for fit of the electrical connector without the need for dremel grind to fit the housing. ps. no one has flashed their brights to indicate that my lows are blinding. Do Not Use H9 in reflector headlight!
Projectors that come with halogens are designed for halogens, projectors that come with HIDs are designed for HIDS, Projectors that come powered by LEDs are designed for LEDS. They are all extremely different.
Robert Polkamp H9s work perfectly fine in reflector housings. A personal friend of mine has given proof that they retain the same beam pattern and cutoff just brighter. Check out "Headlight Junkies" on Facebook and use the search bar to look for H9 conversions.
H9 vs h11 is literally night and day. Unfortunately, after only 3 nights, I noticed the h9's were starting to warp the headlight assemblies. Update: I found a better alternative to the h-9 swap. A company called vleds.com they produce headlights made of LEDs. the low beams produce 3000 lumens 25 watt and the high beam produces 4500 lumens 45 watt, they are expensive, however, they allegedly last 30,000 hours which should make them cheaper because you should never need to replace them. The company only produce 2 colors 5000k white and 6000k blue I opted for white. The only down side to these lights don't produce much heat in the assemblies and may allow snow to build up and dim the light output and some people are hypersensitive to white light and flash their high beams and you.
Clinton Kirker Not sure how that could happen if you have projector headlight assemblies, which is the only type you should run these in. It doesn't run that much hotter.
Clinton Kirker I saw your video. Looks like you have reflector headlights and not projector. The mod only works for projectors and is not recommended for reflectors. I state this in the video description field.
Phototristan: So what do you recommend? Both my wife and I are having trouble seeing at night because the lights are not bright enough. We have no trouble with our 2005 Honda Accord.
If you are doing this mod for a Pontiac G6, you must swap out your OEM H11 harness to a high-temperature ceramic H11 harness, or your connection wires will fry and you'll be left with your new "low-beam H9" light not working. This will happen not because the higher wattage will burn out the H9 bulb, but it will fry and short out the stock OEM standard connector harness. The Pontiac G6 low-beam harnesses are notorious for doing this frequently, even with only an standard halogen H11 bulb being used. The headlight failure is due to faulty Pontiac GM harness design, and should have been recalled. Please refer to any reputable Net G6 forum for more info on this very common defect if you are having any low beam headlight failure, especially on thedriver's side. BTW, the mod works great, and saves a lot of expense versus installing a HID kit for night driving, without having oncoming traffic constantly flashing their brights at you.
I'm thinking about doing this on my 2012 ram 1500, the stock headlights are a joke especially for a $40k vehicle. I'm also thinking of swapping my 9145 fog lights over to 9005 bulbs, both are reflector type.. Think it'll work for the better? I've also seen the 9005 upgrade to a 9011HIR, I trust your opinion lol so let's hear it
phototristan it works fine in reflector housings. Check out Headlight Junkies on Facebook and when you're accepted into the group use the search function to look up the H9 conversion.
I actually had HIDs before and didn't like them. Too much hardware to worry about custom mounting. Using the stock wiring is a lot cleaner and with this bulb mod, nearly as bright.
In a conventional car installation, the difference of 10 Watts more in that wiring will certainly not cause problems. However, in recent Chinese cabling - I suspect - in the long run the cable sheath will show some difference. Possibly it will become more brittle.
You can either spend a lot of money and a lot more work with HID kits that are questionably legal and questionably more effective (same issues as LEDs like bulb shape, scatter, or other issues) or spend $30 or less and a few minutes with hand tools and have drastically improved light throwing with a bulb that matches shape with the OEM's intended bulb.
